And immediately, while he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the twelve, and with him a crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders. Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “The one I will kiss is the man. Seize him and lead him away under guard.” And when he came, he went up to him at once and said, “Rabbi!” And he kissed him. And they laid hands on him and seized him. But one of those who stood by drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear. And Jesus said to them, “Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs to capture me? Day after day I was with you in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me. But let the Scriptures be fulfilled.” And they all left him and fled. (Mark 14:43-50)
Because I love to encourage a love of the Bible as God’s word, seeing how often Jesus himself refers to the Scriptures as the word of God is always of special interest. Added to this is the time I spent this year testing a book that claimed the scriptures weren’t Christlike enough. To see Jesus constantly and only affirm scripture without once correcting anything that was written puts those false teachers to shame for placing their words above his.
When we keep these two things together, that Jesus IS the Word, and he always treated Scripture as the word of God, we can look at the way he said things, view them through the words breathed out by God into Scripture’s record about him, and let ourselves feel the childlike wonder of the Master’s revelation of truth in love.
In this case, Jesus spoke what he wanted in everyone’s minds. Their evil deed would fulfill the Scriptures and lead to our salvation, but identifying their cowardice in coming for him at night, and away from the people, must be in their minds for down the road.
One Scripture I see fulfilled so many times in God’s word is this: “Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?” (Romans 2:4). This is often fulfilled in seeing the way God expresses his kindness to lead people to repentance. However, it is also seen in the way people presume on this work of God thinking that his kindness means he is okay with their sin!
Now, how does the very next line express both sides of this? Consider, “But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed” (Romans 2:5).
This expresses God’s kindness aiming to bring people to repentance by telling them the truth in love about what is happening when we presume on God’s kindness and keep sinning. It isn’t a message that God’s kindness means he is okay with our sin. It’s a message that when we respond to God’s kindness with self-justification instead of repentance we are storing up judgment against ourselves. God’s kindness is telling us this because he wants us to repent so he can forgive us.
This also shows the truth about what is going on when people presume on God’s kindness. It describes God’s view of the people who came to arrest Jesus, but with Jesus detailing their sin so that after his death and resurrection some of these men would realize what they had done and benefit from what Jesus did for them through his death on the cross.
My main point is to put the spotlight on the way Jesus put the spotlight on Scripture. If anyone will receive his will that we live “by every word that comes from the mouth of God”, we will “let the word of Christ dwell in us richly” so we know how to live out our place in the body of Christ for God’s glory and the good of everyone in our lives.
© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8
Email: in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)
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